When seeing Colorado Rockies shortstop prospect Trevor Story in person, very little about his all-around game strikes one as sexy beyond his current triple slash line of .283/.395/.535. However, as a teenager in the South Atlantic League, Story’s numbers are on par with the best middle infield prospects in the game which has led to many questions about his ceiling and comparisons to Nolan Arenado, the current king of the Rockies prospect mountain.
Last year was an exceptional one for the state of Oklahoma. Its high school baseball programs gave Major League Baseball not one, but two potential star pitchers. And another three prep arms are loaded with potential. I personally cannot remember the last time I was this excited about the future of a state-specific draft class. It’s even more impressive coming from a state like Oklahoma that is not a baseball hotbed like Texas, Florida or California. The last top-flight prep arm to come out of an Oklahoma high school was Miami’s Chad James, a 2009 draftee.
Dylan Bundy, RHP, Owasso
Selected: 4th overall by Baltimore
2011 Top 15 Prospect Ranking: 1st
Perhaps you’ve heard of Bundy, the best prep prospect to come out of the high school ranks since… forever? The teenager has carved his way through the low-A lineups. He’s given up just two hits and two walks in 20.0 innings of work. That is not a typo. Bundy finally gave up a run (although unearned) in his sixth start of the year. He’s whiffed 33 batters and is also getting a healthy number of ground-ball outs. Bundy could probably jump to double-A at this point and hold his own, although it’s hard to get a true read on his current skill level because he’s only pitching 3.0 or 4.0 innings at a time. As long as he stays healthy Bundy looks like a surefire of a No.1 starter – a comment I normally never make about a prep pitcher with six pro starts. You typically see top flight prep prospects reach the Majors in three to four seasons; Bundy could reach the Majors within one to two years.
Episode 180
David Laurila, curator of FanGraphs’ Q&A Series, talks to catcher Luis Exposito, who recently made his major-league debut with Baltimore not long after being DFA’d by Boston.
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In his age 34 season, Cardinals shortstop Rafael Furcal is off to tremendous start. Through Wednesday’s action, Furcal is batting .361/.423/.508 with a .413 wOBA and a 168 wRC+. In 138 plate appearances, he has 44 hits, including ten doubles and two home runs. His walk rate (9.4 percent) is above his career average (9 percent) and his strikeout rate (10.1 percent) is below his career average (12.6 percent). Only Carlos Beltran has a higher wOBA and wRC+ on the Cardinals, who are 20-11 after the first thirty-one games of the season.
It’s early, of course, so all small sample size caveats apply. But Furcal’s start puts him at the top of the wOBA and wRC+ leader boards among 33 to 36-year old shortstops over the last 10 years. Derek Jeter’s 2007 and 2009 seasons are close behind, but after that, it’s a pretty sharp drop-off. When you expand the wOBA and wRC+ leader boards to all 33 to 36-year olds who played in the last ten seasons, Furcal finds himself in some pretty good company. Jim Edmonds, Manny Ramirez, Chipper Jones, Magglio Ordonez, Larry Walker, Jim Thome and so on.
What’s fueling Furcal’s early success?
Read the rest of this entry »
Fenway Park will be different tonight. To the fans, a familiar voice will be missing. To those who work at the ballpark, a friend will be mourned. Carl Beane died unexpectedly yesterday at the age of 59.
Beane was The Voice of Fenway Park. The Agawam, Massachusetts, native had been the team’s public address announcer since 2003. His deep, rich baritone was instantly recognizable to a generation of fans.
His style was straightforward, with only an occasional flourish. When “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Fenway Park” came over the loudspeakers, it was easy to imagine it being a bygone era. Befitting his workplace, Carl Beane loved tradition.
He also loved his job. To many of his friends — and he had no shortage of those — that is how he’ll be remembered. The Voice of Fenway Park didn’t come to work. He came to do something he enjoyed, and it showed. Carl Beane will be missed.
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In the summer of 2005, I talked to Beane about his life and career for the book “Interviews from Red Sox Nation” [Maple Street Press, 2006]. As an appreciation, here are excerpts from that interview:
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Yes. Cubs first baseman Bryan LaHair will sustain his success. The Cubs have indeed caught lightning in a bottle.
LaHair is leading the MLB with a .510 BABIP and is third behind Matt Kemp and Josh Hamilton with a 36.4% HR/FB ratio. Fans of Chicago’s northside and fans of regression to the mean have begun to pay extra close attention to LaHair because he has performed so well in these luck-affected categories. In Mike Axisa’s most recent first baseman rankings, he moved LaHair up to Tier Four, though he was uncertain of what LaHair would look like after the smoke cleared:
LaHair is off to a scorching start but his numbers will come back to Earth a bit once his .545 (!) BABIP returns to normal. That said, the man can definitely hit.
But how much of LaHair’s world-shattering .511 wOBA is white noise, and how much is thunder? Let’s investigate.
Read the rest of this entry »
Will Middlebrooks is making Kevin Youkilis easy to forget. The 23-year-old top prospect has taken the world by storm as Youkilis’s injury replacement. Even in taking an 0-for-4 in Wednesday’s loss to the Royals, Middlebrooks owns a .520 wOBA on the back of four doubles and three home runs in six games. It has been an incredibly exciting debut for Boston and fans of young players in general, one that of course raises the question: what happens when Kevin Youkilis returns?
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: Tampa Bay at New York AL, 19:05 ET (Free Game)
2. Other Notable Games
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: Tampa Bay at New York AL, 19:05 ET
Regarding the Big, Big Deal About This Game
The big, big deal about this game is that it’s the first so far this season to receive a NERD Game Score of 9.
Regarding What a NERD Game Score Is, For Anyone Who Doesn’t Know
For anyone who doesn’t know, NERD is intended to be a numerical representation of a team or a player or a pitcher’s aesthetic appeal, or “watchability.” (Read more about it here, if you even want to). A Game Score is the combination of the pitcher and team scores involved in a specific game.
Regarding the Number of People Denoted by “Anyone Who Doesn’t Know”
Over six billion, definitely.
Jed Lowrie has arrived. After four injury riddled seasons with the Boston Red Sox, the 28-year-old shortstop is experiencing a breakout year with the Houston Astros. Lowrie’s performance makes him one of the most exciting players on a Houston team devoid of talent. While health has always been an issue, Lowrie is proving that he’s a player the team may want to build around.
